In American life, we think we are most free when we don't need anybody. Exactly what Alzheimer's represents is absolute dependency - That's what we all need to learn - how deeply we need one another.

- Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essayist

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat . . .We must find each other.

- Mother Theresa, Saint

They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything.

- Bil Keane, Cartoonist

You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.

- A. A. Milne, Author (Winnie the Pooh)

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

- Albert Schweitzer, Missionary

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

- Martha Graham, Dancer

All real living is meeting.

- Martin Buber, Philosopher

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

- William James, Philosopher

A good traveler is one who does not know where he is going to, and a perfect traveler does not know where he came from.

- Lin Yutang, Writer

If someone listens, or stretches out a hand, or whispers a kind word of encouragement, or attempts to understand a lonely person, extraordinary things begin to happen.

- Loretta Girzartis, Author

Film Participants

Robert PinskyHost and Narrator

Robert Pinsky’s most recent book of poems, The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966-1996 was nominated for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize and awarded the 1996 Ambassador Award of the English Speaking Union. His The inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Review prize in poetry and the Howard Morton Landon Prize in Translation. Among his many honors is the Shelby Memorial award. In 1997, the Princeton University Press reissued his book length poem, An Explanation of America, which won the Saxifrage Prize in 1975. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, in the fall of 1997, reissued History ofMy Heart, chosen by the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Prize in 1984. From1997 to 2000, he was the Poet Laureate of the U.S. Robert Pinsky is the poetry editor of Slate, an on-line magazine published by Microsoft at www.slate.com, and teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University.

Stanley HauerwasSubject Matter Expert

Stanley Hauerwas is a United Methodist theologian, ethicist and professor of law. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University and a D.D. from the University of Edinburgh. He has taught at the University of Notre Dame and is currently the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School with a joint appointment at the Duke University of Law. Hauerwas delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectureship at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland in 2001. He was named “America’s Best Theologian” by Time in 2001. His book, A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian SocialEthic, was selected as one of the 100 most important books on religion of the 20th century.

Rom HarréSubject Matter Expert

Rom Harré is Chair of the Subdepartment of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and concurrently Professor of Social Psychology at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. He has published over 30 books in the past 30 years, both in the philosophy of science and the foundations of social psychology. His 1972 book, co-authored with P.F Secord, The Explanation of Social Behaviour, became a ‘Citation Classic,’ and is the foundation source for modern social psychology. Dr. Harre was a student of the founder of speech-act philosophy, J.L. Austin (a pupil of Wittgenstein), a philosophy which is at the root of both cognitive science and current interests in language and discourse as they illuminate the ‘human condition.’ Among his most recent books are The Discursive Mind (with G. Gillett), 1992; Discursive Psychology in Practice (with P. Stearns), 1995; Rethinking Psychology,1995; and Rethinking Methods in Psychology, 1995 (both with J.A. Smith and L. van Langenhove).

Lisa SnyderSubject Matter Expert

Lisa Snyder is a clinical social worker at the University of California, San Diego’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, where she has counseled persons with Alzheimer’s and their families since 1987. She received her undergraduate degree in fine art before obtaining her graduate degree in social work from San Diego State University. She maintains a keen interest in methods of personal expression for individuals with Alzheimer’s and in the potential of Memory Bridge to provide a forum for persons with memory loss to mentor us in a deeper understanding, and honoring, of our shared humanity. In 2002, she was awarded a National Association of Social Work regional Social Worker of the Year award for her innovative work in illuminating the subjective experience of Alzheimer’s, developing and facilitating support groups for persons with the disease, and enhancing public understanding of the many faces of Alzheimer’s. She teaches and consults internationally on these issues and is on the editorial board of two international journals, Alzheimer’s Care Quarterly and Dementia. She is the author of, Speaking Our Minds-Personal Reflections from Individuals with Alzheimer’s (W.H. Freeman, 1999, 2000) and editor and publisher of the international quarterly, “Perspectives: A Newsletter for Individuals with Alzheimer’s or a Related Disorder.”

Naomi Feil, M.S, A.C.S.W.Subject Matter Expert

Naomi Feil, Executive Director of the Validation Training Institute, was born in Munich in 1932, and grew up in the Montefiore Home for the Aged in Cleveland, Ohio, where her father was the administrator and her mother was the head of the Social Service Department. Between 1963 and 1980, Mrs. Feil developed Validation as a response to her dissatisfaction with traditional methods of working with the severely disoriented old people who were her clients. In 1982, she published her first book, Validation: The Feil Method (rev. ed. 1992). Her second book, The Validation Breakthrough, was published in 1993 (re. ed. 2002). She is a popular speaker in North America and Europe; since 1989 she has toured Europe three times a year offering workshops in Validation to participants in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, France, Belgium, Italy, Great Britain, and Austria. Her books have been translated into French, Dutch, German, Italian, Finnish, Danish, and Swedish. More information about her Validation Training Iinstitute can be found here: https://vfvalidation.org

Josh DormanArtist

Josh Dorman, a nationally recognized artist living in New York, came to Alden Town Manor Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Cicero, Ill., in August 2005 to create five paintings based on the imaginative and emotional landscapes of five people with advanced dementia. Assisted by Michael Verde of Memory Bridge and two social workers from Northwestern University, Josh spent six hours a day with five residents of Alden Town Manor. The thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams, and whatever else residents chose to share with Josh provided him the imaginative material from which he created his paintings. Josh earned a B.A from Skidmore College and an M.F.A. from Queens College.

The Dixie Chicks

Approved the use of “Silent House” from their double-platinum 2006 album Taking the Long Way. The Dixie Chicks are an all-female American country music trio comprised of Emily Robison, Martie Maguire and Natalie Maines. Formed in 1989 in Dallas, the group achieved large-scale country and pop music success starting in the 1990s, with hit songs including “Wide Open Spaces,” “Cowboy Take Me Away,” and “Long Time Gone.”

London Symphony Orchestra

Performed original music, “What are We Dreaming Of,” at Abbey Road, England. With more than 100 players, The London Symphony Orchestra performs more than 90 concerts a year at the Barbican in its home city of London. The award-winning LSO tours internationally.